Rise to Honour review

Being a fan of kungfu and martial arts flicks, I was really looking forward to what appeared to be an interactive film. The story puts you into the role of Kit Yun, the bodyguard of a man who has entrusted you with the task of delivering a package to his daughter in Hong Kong. Kit must travel throughout both San Francisco and Hong Kong to fulfil the wishes of his old boss. Right from the beginning the story moves along very well, thanks to well made cut scenes and some great action sequences.

As soon as you boot this title up it feels like a DVD. From the chapter selection, to bonus features such as documentaries and art galleries, the very slick interface reeks of production value. This definitely gets you in the mood for some chop socky goodness.

It's really him!

The graphics, animation, backgrounds and everything else are quite visually stunning and there seems to be a subtle hue to the game, giving it more of a film feeling. The particle effects, be it a chair breaking into pieces, or splashes of water in a pool are great and there are always new things to smash and break in each new area you encounter.

As for the voice acting, it’s nothing spectacular, but it’s as good as you would expect from a title such as this. The option of subtitles for both English and Chinese speech is well appreciated. The musical soundtrack is very subtle and barely noticeable.

Grabbed by the Ghoulies

Now, where the game falters is in it’s core game mechanics. The idea the developer decided to go with was to move with the left analogue stick and fight with the right analogue stick. It sounds great at first: why bother using all fifteen buttons on the controller when you only need to use two?

At first, it seems different, but very interesting at the same time. After about thirty minutes you will find yourself groaning at the confusing controls, such as pressing R1 to pick up a chair, or block, or throw someone… and the shoddy response time on the kicks and punches from the right analogue stick. If you see an enemy coming at you from the bottom of the screen and you press down too soon, you will find yourself the victim of three or four cheap shots. That’s if someone hasn’t already attacked you from behind. I will admit, the fact that you can fight in a 360 degree arc is interesting, as it allows for lots of possible combos with enemies if you manage to hit them in time.

Everybody was kung fu fighting

Add to this, the frustrating controls of the counter attack (hold R1 + L1 + hit the right analogue stick simultaneously!!), the gun controls (use the right analogue stick to aim towards and auto target an enemy, then R2 to shoot) and you begin to wonder if it would have been easier to just use the square, X, triangle and O buttons. They sit there the entire game being sorely unused - I guarantee if you play this game you will say the same thing. It reminds me of the old PC title, Die by the Sword. It used a “revolutionary” control scheme of translating the mouse’s movements into the movement of your sword on screen. A very cool feature back then, but after ten minutes and many hairs pulled it just would have been better without it.

All in all, this is one title that could have… should have… would have…. been better without its similarly irritating controls. Rent it if you’re a Jet Li fan, pass completely if you aren’t.